Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Ottoman slipcover

Recently, most of my efforts around the house have been focused on getting ready for baby and inevitably, all of the guests that will be coming to see her! With that in mind, I decided that our living room needed an extra ottoman that could be used as a foot rest, a side table or an extra seat. Luckily, I found this storage ottoman for only $14 at Target:

It wasn't the prettiest thing, and it didn't really match anything else in the living room, so I made a slipcover for it! As with all of my sewing projects, I just figure things out as I go along and this is the best method I came up with for this project.

Gather your basic supplies:

Fabric
Matching thread
Pins
Measuring tape
Scissors

The fabric I used for this is actually a cotton curtain panel from IKEA that I was no longer using.

First, I cut my top piece. I just eyeballed it and decided where I would like the skirt part of the slipcover to start. I wanted a fairly long skirt on this ottoman, so I made the top piece small. Lola wanted to help too!

Once you have this piece cut to size, fold the corners together and pin them.

Now, just sew a straight line along where you placed your pins.

Once all 4 corners are done, I like to put the piece back on my ottoman to check the fit. You can also trim the excess fabric on the corners at this point. Leave this top piece on the ottoman for now.

Now, measure the length and width you'll need for the skirt. I made one side of the skirt at a time, so I didn't have too much fabric to work with all at once.

I figured I needed 12 inches of length which included 1 inch seam allowances for both ends.

To figure out how wide to make each side of the skirt, first measure the width of the ottoman. Mine was about 14 inches wide on each side. I wanted 3 inch pleats on my skirt, so in order to do that, I needed to double my measurement for the fabric width, making it 28 inches. Then I added my 1 inch seam allowances for both sides, making my total measurement 30 inches.

So my final skirt measurement was 12 inches long by 30 inches wide. Remember, this is just for one side of the ottoman.

Once you have your skirt cut to size, hem what will be your bottom edge (the edge that will touch the floor).

Now, get out your iron and ironing board to start making your pleats. Measure each pleat to 3 inches and pin as you go.

Once you've made all of your pleats, take that piece of fabric over to your ottoman.

Hold up the skirt fabric next to the ottoman to see where you'll need to pin your skirt to the top piece.

The pins you're seeing in the picture above are just holding the pleats together. I haven't yet pinned the skirt to the top piece.

The best way I figured to attach the skirt to the top piece was to remove the pins that were holding my pleats together and use those same pins to secure the skirt and the top pieces together.

As you're removing the pins, flip up the edge of the top piece of fabric...

...hold the top piece and the skirt together and pin....

...so it looks like this.

Keep pinning until your skirt is attached to the top.

Now, remove your pieces from the ottoman and sew together.

Here's what it will look like with one side of the skirt sewn on.

Repeat the above steps until you have all 4 sides of your skirt sewn to the top piece. Since my ottoman is square, I didn't need to take any additional measurements for the other sides.

Almost done....

Notice the sides of the skirt are still not connected to each other.

Once you have all 4 sides of your skirt sewn on, pin the 4 corners of your skirt together.

Sew them together and trim the excess fabric.

Trim your corners and press open all of your seams.

Now, slip it over your ottoman and enjoy!

This little ottoman will live under one of my living room end tables when no one is using it.

Lola approves!

So, that's how I gave my inexpensive, not-so-pretty ottoman a little makeover. I used the same method to slipcover my larger living room ottoman that you can see here.

About Me

Living my dream of being a stay-at-home mom in Northern Virginia with my wonderful husband, our little girl, and our Chihuahua. I love being a mom, decorating, crafting, thrifting, diy-ing just about anything, antiquing, sewing, finding a good deal, refinishing furniture, hosting parties, and just creating! Stick around to see all of these things, and glimpses into our everyday life, too! Welcome! I hope you'll stick around!